New Studies Shows Human Brain Reaches Full Growth Around Age 12

A new study indicates that the brain of children at the age of 12 is pretty much developed. After this age, the brain is shown to slow down quite a bit. Researchers, who are studying the human brain, recruit healthy families. They have studied 500 families ranging in age from the new born to teenagers. Periodically, these subjects are given MRI scans of their brains. These scans are taken of these individuals from the time they are infants until they become teenagers. The subjects are also given a battery of tests which include IQ, language skills and memory. The research is funded by the National Institute of Health.

It is difficult to test toddlers because it is hard to keep them still. Many toddlers are put in the scanners at nap time to make this situation easier.

The machines that scan the brain are noisy so the researchers have to be careful that the children do not wake up. Ear plugs are placed in the ears to block out the banging noise that the machines make. Six year olds can wear ear phones so they can watch videos that are inserted in the scanners.

The MRI images measure how different parts of the brain grow and reorganize throughout the child's life. The study showed that performance on a variety of cognitive tasks such as memory, vocabulary, spatial recognition, reasoning and calculation rapidly improve between ages 6 to 10. From there, it levels off.

It has been noted that adolescent brain is still growing in certain areas. The region responsible for such things as impulse control and moral judgment is the last to mature. Sometimes this does not take place until the individual reaches the early 20's. This was discovered by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Perhaps environment, how a child is brought up in his home life, makes the difference in such matters regarding impulse control and moral judgment.

Scientists are aware that before the age of 12, the brain is racing to wire itself, making more connections between nerve cells. This is the time when children learn more quickly. This is why a child can learn a foreign language quicker than a teenager or an adult.